Tag Archives: marvel

Launched as part of the “Journey To The Force Awakens” multimedia campaign, Shattered Empire begins in the final moments of Return of the Jedi and takes off from there. A fast-paced space battle kicks the story off before the familiar post-Death Star celebration begins.

The story is divided fairly evenly between the original cast and the new. It was interesting and well-paced. It’s weakness is the ending, which honestly didn’t feel like a logical stopping point. If it weren’t for the tiny words “to be continued” at the bottom of the last panel, you’d have no clue the issue was about to end. While I think the series will be strong overall, the individual issues are likely meant to be read in a single sitting.

The art is gorgeous and remains strong throughout. Building on the theme of balancing the old with the new, the colors struck a balance between the more subdued tones of the McQuarrie-inspired original trilogy and the bright saturated look of the prequels and Clone Wars series, without favoring one over the other.

The final three issues of the four issue series will be released on October 7th, 14th, and 21st.

As a final note: Ewok-haters beware that they have a fairly substantial presence. Also, please grow a heart and learn to love the furry little guys. They’re cute and murderous, the two very best things anything can be.

Like this:

Agent Carter, subject to a criminally short 8 episode run in its debut season, is now available on DVD.

Originally it sounded like a tough sell. Peggy Carter of Captain America was a likable enough character, but she had no super powers and much of her role revolved around supporting Steve Rogers. Many wondered not only how she could star in her own series, but who would be the supporting cast when the bigger names were obviously going to be reserved for the movies.

Agent Carter, I can happily report, managed both feats astonishingly well. Peggy is presented as a capable woman experiencing what many female soldiers faced when World War II ended and gender roles snapped back into their rigid standards with heartbreaking ease. A realistic, if at times frustrating, world was built around her by the writers, filled with realistically flawed coworkers who struggle to understand why she wants to continue working as an agent of the SSR when she is relegated to picking up lunch orders and answering phones.

A solid balance is struck between intelligent and rewarding character development and the sort of fast-paced action scenes the audience would expect from a Marvel production. Agent Carter is thrust into a world of espionage and highly trained assassins when she is asked to help Howard Stark–Iron Man’s father–clear his name after many dangerous inventions are stolen and sold on the black market, making him a suspect of treason. Edwin Jarvis (another name familiar to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark’s virtual assistant) is tasked by his employer Howard Stark to assist her in the task of clearing his name.

One of the most pleasant surprises about Agent Carter is that she’s never presented as–nor does she ever claim to be–better than “typical women.” Never once do the writers put forth the tired trope about most women being vain and useless, while the female lead is set apart from the vapid masses by her willingness to be “one of the guys.” She owns her femininity, and is given several positive female friendships. Agent Carter is a series that quietly but firmly shows that women are often held back in a professional setting because men–either willfully or even without intending any malice–underestimate the competence of women who refuse to strip themselves of anything overtly feminine.

Agent Carter is easily one of my favorite entries set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I hope you will all enjoy it as much as I have.

Incidentally, this post was originally supposed to be titled, “Agent Carter DVD Release Is Fierce And Fabulous,” but sadly Marvel wasn’t willing to put much effort into the DVD or Blue-Ray sets. The Blue-ray set has a small featurette. The DVD set has a blooper reel. It’s a substandard product but I bought it to support the series and show Marvel that there is a strong consumer interest in continuing it. I hate being put in the position of either rewarding a business for charging full-price for a few episodes and fewer bonus features, or sending the message that Marvel should cut its losses and cancel the show.

Like this:

Years of Future Past is one of the new X-Men titles released in the aftermath of Marvel’s Secret Wars event. We are taken to a bleak future Earth controlled by Doom and administrated by President Kelley. Mutants have been sent to concentration camps and New York is almost unrecognizable as a barren, almost post-apocalyptic jungle. Cars and even buses are pulled by horse teams through the ravaged streets. It is here we meet Christina, the 15 year old daughter of Kitty Pryde, foraging for supplies.

The pacing feels rather off. We get pages and pages of set up in angst-ridden streets and lots of dialog, and then the fights are over in very truncated fashion, only a few panels at most. A lot of time is spent with characters talking to set up things that either don’t happen or happen far too quickly to be satisfying.

I’d like to hope that Marvel doesn’t go down the rather unfortunate path it seems like the writer is hinting at. Much is made of the fact that mutants have been forcibly sterilized for almost 20 years, and Chrissie is young, viable, and the “hope for the future.” It would be highly disappointing if Marvel intends to write this as a creepy plotline where all the adults encourage Chrissie let herself be repeatedly bred for a new generation of mutants. This first issue really seems to place an uncomfortable focus on the nice, fertile ovaries of a 15 year old girl. I’m curious how they could take the story in a better direction, as they repeatedly hammer the readers over the head with the fact that all the other mutants have been sterilized at least once every few pages. [Correction: I was informed by a commenter that it was never stated that Chrissie escaped the sterilization, and that in future issues the writer emphasizes that Chrissie’s role is more about the younger generation fixing the mistakes of the previous generation.]

Overall I’d give it a 2 out 5 and that’s being fairly generous. I’ll pick up another one of two issues since I’ve been meaning to get back in to the X-Men after a hiatus, but if it were any other title I wouldn’t bother.

Like this:

George Lucas sold off the Star Wars universe to Disney to the tune of 4 billion dollars. If that announcement isn’t shocking enough, Disney has already set a very approximate date for the next Star Wars film: 2015. (Also, I vote Nathan Fillion for Han Solo) . Disney has a trilogy planned, with more possibly to come after that. There have been hints that we can expect a much bigger Star Wars presence in the Disney parks as well.

Am I terrible, disloyal fan if my very first thought was, “Well, it’s not like they could do a worse job than Lucas?” I love Star Wars. I respect and admire George Lucas for creating it. But I hated the new trilogy. Maybe if the filmmakers are held accountable to someone, rather than being surrounded by hired yes-men, we can expect a modicum of improvement. It won’t be anything like the original Star Wars, but neither were the prequels.

Perhaps the biggest question for the comic book community: Will this impact Dark Horse’s relationship with Star Wars? Can we expect a new comic series from Marvel?